Assignment: Service Learning Reflection

The final assignment of the course is to examine your service learning experience and how it fits with social welfare concepts discussed throughout the course. The paper will include a brief description of your service learning experience, a critical examination of your own personal growth and connection to the experience, and conclude with a connection to 2 relevant course content areas. Due Friday, December 1st.

The components of this paper are as follows:

Service Learning Description

Provide a brief description of your service learning experience. Include the agency where you performed your SL hours, the primary population with whom you worked, and your primary activities during this experience. This section should be no more than half a page in length.

Personal Growth and Connection

Assess your strengths and challenges working in your SL setting. What came easily to you? What was more difficult? How did your strengths and challenges affect your service learning experience? Also - what assumptions did you have prior to the SL experience? Assumptions can be about the population, the agency setting, or people who work in the agency setting. Did your SL experience fit with these assumptions? Or did they differ? Based on your strengths, challenges, and assumptions, what changes would you make for future SL or community engagement projects? This section should be approximately 1 - 2 pages.

Connection to Course Content

Connect your SL experience to at least 2 content areas covered in class (poverty, social welfare history, child welfare, hunger and nutrition, etc.) Use your textbook, class materials (with proper citation), or other references to explain how these two areas connect to your experience. Did your SL experience challenge or reinforce what we learned in class? How? And what reasons might exist for these differences? This section should be approximately 1 - 2 pages.

Writing

APA format, grammar, flow, style, spelling, uses appropriate citation of text and course materials and 5 pages in length, not including the reference or title page.